Tag Archives: Halloween

Don’t know if its just me wanting any old excuse to get dressed up and have a party, but this year I am just so into Halloween! I am loving the fact that year on year it’s getting bigger than the last. With less than a week to go to the night of fright I thought I’d have some fun, do some making with the kids and put some spooky special offers on the website for anyone who loves a good deal or wants to do some early present buying or what not.

If you have read the blog before or know me, I guess you’ll have a fair idea that I love love love to make things -usually a mess- but the very idea of making something out of nothing is a great way to inspire the kids and let out my eternal need to use my hands and do stuff.

Having a day’s warning that there was an inset day at my son’s school (how did I miss that? I am normally Mrs Organised) last week , I thought I had better get Fred in on the act to make some stylish goodies to use in the photoshoot for the Rockabye kids clothes I wanted to shoot on the Saturday.

So get ready for gingerbread skeletons. Pipe cleaner spiders and Origami bats. The first of which came from a brief email from my mum who surprised me by pinning me Pinterest pics of cool Halloween stuff- Amazeballs!! I really didn’t know my mum had it in her – and now she is showing me up with her techno coolness. So courtasy of my lovely Mum and www.totalbristol.com/eating-and-drinking/halloween-baking/#VjDcTP5OfiE and with my Nan’s old BERO baking book, we set out to trash the kitchen and make some skeleton gingerbreads. How is that for a bit of retro cooking?

Basically the feeling that you are having a family moment of #greatparenting when cooking with kids is usually balanced out by them either giving up half way though and going upstairs, or them creating so much mess you think – no way this is not worth it and get in the car and go to Marks and Spencers!

Anyway my six year old, decided that it would be better to sieve the flour through his hair rather than onto the table to roll out the dough. This of course he had to do whilst looking in the mirror, eating the dough that was ready to be rolled and checking that his hair had indeed gone the correct shade of grey. The that fact that we made anything at all was an added bonus.

The gingerbreads turned out awesome and even though the nozzle on the icing bag was really too big for detail, Scarlet and I had a great time bringing them to life – thank God for daughters that balance out the madness of sons.
You can see the fruit of our effort on the emails that have been going out to the VIP members that are signed up to thewww.rockabye-baby.com
website this week and if you are not signed up for my special offers why not? sign up now if you like. The little ginger bread men had tags tied to their arms for prices and actually were delicious. I had to stop myself eating all the props but I have to say I had such fun, even if I did feel a bit sick whilst taking the pictures.

The piper cleaner spiders were so easy to make it is ridiculous. So take 2 pipe cleaners the same colour and cut one into 4 equal lengths. Put the 4 lengths together in a bundle and line them up together. Take the other pipe cleaner and wrap it round the centre of the bundle. Bend out the 4 legs on either side and you have a spider.
The best of these can be seen on the baby on tour body suit (now £7 from £20- how is that for a bit of mindless sales pushing) but the spiders are cool. Anyone can make them.

My last props to make were all origami and I searched ‘tinternet (nope, not a miss spelling – just a Northern accent) for origami bats, skulls and pumpkins. I am pretty dexterous with my old digits but I have to tell you that the Pumpkin (that I will post) had me beat – spending the evening folding and refolding and making what looked like a really rubbish orange fan, I gave up and stuck to skulls and bats. Bats were used in the guitar sleep suit shot so you can have a look for yourself below.

All the special offers, recipes and origami instructions (including the bad ass pumpkin) I will post on our Rockabye facebook page. There are some great offers on line too and many lines are down to £5 so why not support a local British business, make some skeletons with the kids put flour in your hair and get yourself a bargain.
Bye for now Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween.
Emma